Meijiajing, an old Chinese cosmetics brand, is still on the counter in key cities. Many vintage cosmetics brands are making a comeback through online store sales. [CFP]
Zhang Xiaowei, a post-80s generation woman, searched several stores for a beauty cream that she remembered well from her childhood. To her disappointment, it seemed to have vanished.
So Zhang turned to Tangjinu, an online shop ranked among the leaders for carrying nostalgic cosmetics on Taobao, China's biggest Internet retail website.
"I am selling not only cosmetics, but also childhood memories," said Jiang Yafang, the online shop's owner.
Miracle beauty cream, Friendship snow cream, Golden Ballet perfume, Seal clamshell oil: These vintage cosmetics were best-sellers decades ago, but they are disappearing from store shelves.
Back in the 1980s, for example, Miracle brand cosmetics were popular throughout China.
Customers
"Because competition in the domestic market became fierce in the 1990s, we now only sell in tourist stores in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai," said Shi Weidong, sales manager of Yamei Cosmetics, which owns the Miracle brand.
When Yamei Cosmetics made the change, China was evolving from a planned economy to a market economy and opening its doors to foreign companies.
"Under a planned economy, we focused on producing good products, and there was no need to establish sales channels of our own," Shi said.
Faced with unprecedented competition, Yamei Cosmetics decided to shrink its domestic market and produce mainly export orders, Shi said.
So for a decade or two, Miracle and many other old brands retreated from view in China.
"Many domestic producers are too small to afford the costs of TV advertisements and entrance fees into supermarkets or department stores. They used to be defined locally," said a cosmetics industry researcher surnamed Zhang.
Online option
Online businesses offer another option for small and medium-sized cosmetics companies, Zhang said.
As early as 2006, some venders started to sell vintage cosmetics online. Miracle did not take notice until online sales surged in 2007.
In 2007 alone, online sales of Miracle brand products reached 2.4 million yuan, 16 percent of total annual sales. Online sales almost doubled in 2008.
Encouraged by its fast-growing online business, Yamei Cosmetics created an online sales team, renewed its website and issued more than 100 distribution certificates to Taobao retailers.
"We will launch Internet advertisements next year, now that Internet retail provides us with a new option," Shi said.
Jiang quit her job as a fashion editor to run the online shop Tangjinu in 2007.
"I am nostalgic, and there are many others," Jiang said. "There is a market here."
But cosmetics researcher Zhang said it is only a niche market.
"The fact is, many old brands have been written off," Zhang said.
Still, Jiang tries to find old brands for customers.
"I try my best to collect all the childhood memories, but I find some have gone with the wind," Jiang said.
